Lab 4: Modern Human Variation

Question 1

Anthropometry

Answer 1

Measurement of the human body (to evaluate and describe human variation, within and between populations)

exp. head size

Question 2

Typology

Answer 2

When things are classified by type

Question 3

Bergmann’s Rule

Answer 3

1 of 2 two rules used to describe climate based human variation

The idea that mammals’ body size increases as they live further away from the equator

Based on ratio of surface area:volume (volume produces heat, surface area releases heat)

Question 4

Allen’s Rule

Answer 4

1 of 2 two rules used to describe climate based human variation

The idea that limb length decreases as animals live farther from the equator

Based on ratio of surface area:volume of limbs

Question 5

Clinal Variation

Answer 5

Geographically continuos variations in which some phenotypic expressions of certain characteristics gradually change from one population to the next.

exp. skin color

Question 6

Skin Color

Answer 6

Falsely understood as a discrete, discontinuous characteristic that distinguishes some members of a species from others

Problematic and arbitrary bc
it’s based on environment
it’s clinal (continuous by geographical location)
it is not a predictor of other traits that my be considered indicative of racial variations

Question 7

Non-concordance

Answer 7

When traits are not correlated/do not share similar pattern of geographic variation

Exp: skin color and lactose intolerance

The idea that racial traits are not linked to other traits

Most genetic variation occurs within rather than between ‘races’; Differences between ‘races’ is more indicative of geographic/environmental ancestral variation

Question 8

Adaptation

Answer 8

Specific, inheritable, irreversible gene-based traits that enhance an organism’s ability to reproduce in a given environment

More appropriate explanation for variation between people than ‘race’

Question 9

Developmental Adaptability

Answer 9

1 of 2 types of functional adaptability

Irreversible adaptations that occur in an individual during growth and development

Subsequent changes are NOT hereditary

Question 10

Physiological AcclimaTIZATION

Answer 10

1 of 2 types of functional adaptability

REVERSIBLE adaptations that occur in an individual during growth and development

Subsequent changes are not hereditary

Question 11

Functional Adaptability

Answer 11

Umbrella term for developmental and physiological adaptability

Question 12

Homeostasis

Answer 12

System of balance whose maintenance requires organisms to respond to strain caused but (environmental) stress

Question 13

Blumenbach

Answer 13

Facilitated the use of race as a biological variation between humans:
Caucasian
Ethiopian (read African)
American (read North and South American)
Mongolian
Malay (read South Pacific)

Question 14

Monogenism

Answer 14

The idea that all human species descended from Adam and Eve and that ‘races’ of non-white people were degenerate versions of Adam and Eve

Question 15

Polygenism

Answer 15

The idea that white people came from Adam and Eve and every other ‘race’ of people descended from other Adam and Eve-esque origins

Based in Bible-driven explanation

Question 16

Social Darwinists

Answer 16

Misconstrued Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ to mean that only the fit should be permitted to survive

Fitness indicators (such as intelligence or affluence) were steeps in baseless stereotypes and weren’t empirically determined

Gave us forced sterilization and Eugenics

Question 17

Sub-species

Answer 17

Subgroups of the same animal species that are geographically and genetically distinct

A more concrete, animal version of what we call race for humans
(Except that the animal version involves discernible genetic diversity; humans only vary on about 6% of their genetic makeup, most of which found in black people)

Question 18

Concordance

Answer 18

When two traits are correlated/share a similar pattern of geographic variation d/t rxn to environmental challenges

Exp dark skin and sickle cell anemia; frequency of alleles are directly related/proportional

Question 19

Senescence

Answer 19

Stress on the body that result from a lifetime of efforts to respond to physiological stress/maintain homeostasis in (aging)

Exp. menopause and osteoporosis

Question 20

Acclimation

Answer 20

Acute adjustment to stimulus (like shivering)

Question 21

Developmental AcclimaTIZATION

Answer 21

Adaptions that occur during life in response to environment